Braxton Bragg, (born March 22, 1817, Warrenton, N.C., U.S.—died Sept. 27, 1876, Galveston, Texas) Confederate officer in the U.S. Civil War (1861–65) whose successes in the West were dissipated when he failed to follow up on them.

Braxton Bragg, engraving by George E. Perine

Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

After graduating in 1837 from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., Bragg served in the Seminole Wars and the Mexican War (1846–48). As a major general in the Confederate Army, he commanded a corps at Shiloh (April 1862) and, upon the death of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston in that battle, was promoted to full general’s rank. In the autumn of that year, having succeeded Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard in the command of the Army of Tennessee, Bragg led a bold advance from eastern Tennessee across Kentucky to Louisville. Tactically, the ensuing Battle of Perryville (October) was a draw; unwilling to fight to a decision, Bragg withdrew into Tennessee. Though he was bitterly censured, the personal favour of Confederate Pres. Jefferson Davis kept him at the head of the Army of Tennessee, and in December–January 1862–63 he fought the indecisive Battle of Stones River (Murfreesboro) against Gen. William Starke Rosecrans. The following September he inflicted a crushing defeat on Rosecrans at Chickamauga and for a time besieged the Union forces at Chattanooga. But large Federal reinforcements were concentrated upon the threatened spot under Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, and the great Battle of Chattanooga (November) ended in the rout of Bragg’s army. Bragg was then relieved of his command, but President Davis made him his military adviser. After the war he was a civil engineer in Alabama and Texas.

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...at Chickamauga Creek, Georgia (September 19–20), Grant was called to take command in that theatre. Ably assisted by William Sherman and Gen. George Thomas, Grant drove Confederate general Braxton Bragg out of Chattanooga (November 23–25) and out of Tennessee; Sherman subsequently secured Knoxville.

in American Civil War

Meanwhile, 60,000 Federal soldiers under Rosecrans sought to move southeastward from central Tennessee against the important Confederate rail and industrial centre of Chattanooga, then held by Bragg with some 43,000 troops. In a series of brilliantly conceived movements, Rosecrans maneuvered Bragg out of Chattanooga without having to fight a battle. Bragg was then bolstered by troops from...

Beauregard, never popular with Davis, was superseded by Braxton Bragg, one of the president’s favourites. Bragg was an imaginative strategist and an effective drillmaster and organizer, but he was also a weak tactician and a martinet who was disliked by a number of his principal subordinates. Leaving 22,000 men in Mississippi under Price and Van Dorn, Bragg moved through Chattanooga, Tennessee,...

Britannica Web sites

(1817-76). Confederate general Braxton Bragg fought in several engagements in the American Civil War and was noted for leading the South to victory in the Battle of Chickamauga. He was an imaginative military strategist, but he often had trouble executing his plans.